Earthenware
by QuietDragon
Summary: The art of shaping clay, playing games in the dark, and how Naoi developed his hypnotic powers. Introspective. Warnings for mind control, assault, and verbal abuse. One-shot.


Kanade finally ceased her attack as the workers began to abandon Guild. She had successfully infiltrated the deepest level and Chaa and his men had no choice but to escape, on Yuri's orders. A wretched defeat for the Warfront meant a glorious victory for the Student Council.

The SSS members also retreated, of course, leaving Guild in the hands of the Student Council, or rather, its two representatives: Student Council President Tachibana Kanade and the newly appointed Vice President Naoi Ayato.

Naoi gazed intently at the confiscated weaponry that formed the largest portion of their spoils, prompting the quiet Angel to question him: "What's wrong, Naoi-kun?"  
"How could they possibly make guns like these?" Naoi had taken one of the guns into his hands, turning it over and studying it. "Where do they get the materials necessary?"

She watched him from the corner of one gold-tinted eye, before turning her attention back to the hoard of abandoned weapons. "Dirt."

"E-eh?" he turned in surprise to stare at his superior, wondering if this was her strange idea of a joke.

"Look around you... these mountains of dirt and the knowledge of how those guns were made are all they need to make them. Maybe they used to work in firearm factories when they were alive... I don't know," she shrugged lightly, silken hair sliding off the slope of her shoulder. Too light a gesture and much too light a tone of voice, ill-suited for the gravity of the revelation.

This was a fundamental truth he had yet to learn about this world, up until she unwittingly set the gears in motion for her own downfall: he looked at the pistol in his hands, large, well-made, and light enough to carry in just one of his small hands if he wanted to. He didn't know much about guns, but he could tell it was operable with either hand: it had an ambidextrous safety.

He decided to take another of the same kind. Two matching Heckler & Koch pistols.

"Souvenirs?" she asked. To anyone else, it would have sounded like a joke, but he knew she meant it: she was that sort of straight-forward person.

"How unfair, President," he said with a smirk, lilting voice lightly teasing. "You arm yourself with two blades, don't you?"

She watched him for a long, quiet moment, as if wondering who he had to take up arms against when she and her clones were more than enough to keep him out of harm's way, before she turned away to leave. It was one of two equally likely possibilities: Kanade had either failed to suspect him of anything or, if she did, failed to find the words to voice her concerns with. "Let's go. We will destroy the rest of the weapons along with this place."

Many semesters had passed since that day, with so many spirits passing in and out of this world. He had learned to tell the difference between the transitory human spirits and the toy students that marched about in uniform, speaking set phrases like wind-up soldiers that never tired or left their positions. He learned which students could not genuinely feel, which could never find peace to pass on because all they had was their role to play. Thus, he learned which students to prey on, which would not talk or tell another soul of his deeds, even if they managed to steal a glimpse of his face in spite of all of his precautions.

Only now, it wasn't target practice for taking Angel down with his twin pistols, it was his own unique ability he wished to test. Kanade had her Guard Skills, and soon, Naoi will have his own unique power to even the playing field.

The crumpled, battered test-subject-student lay on the floor, curling in pain. The noisy, irregular and pained breathing Naoi had grown accustomed to hearing ceased to draw up even the tiniest ounce of pity within him. The student shifted through painted masks of suffering and fear. A well constructed doll he played too roughly with, alone in this poorly-lit room which kept Naoi's secret.

Naoi decided he had enough of playing games: it was time to test his skill for the first time on a creature more complex than birds and butterflies.

He knelt before his test subject, who withdrew into a ball in a most amusing rendition of human fear. Naoi couldn't help smiling at the sight, laying an arm over his knees, the other hand reaching out.

"Scared? Don't be."

The frightened doll stared, wide-eyed at him, from between arms protectively flung over his face.

This simply won't do.

Naoi kept his hand out, palm up, seemingly unarmed. "I won't hurt you anymore. Trust me."

"Trust you?! You just beat me up for no reason!"

"Look, I'll even show you my face. If you want, you can report me."

Naoi reached out, feeling out the familiar darkness, to throw on the light. Then, Naoi stood so its weak light illuminated his face, revealing him to his terrified captive, who abandoned his attempt to flee to stare, transfixed, as Naoi's eyes turned red.

_"Anything you knew how to make in life, you should be able to make here too, Naoi-kun. As long as you remember how it's made..."_

_"Anything?"_

_"Yes. Anything. What sort of things did you make, I wonder?"_

_"Pottery."_

_"... you don't seem like the type."_

Surrender your self to me.

_A swinging branch above, brilliant sunlight in its absence, then shadow, light, dark, light, dark_

_"You were the one who died."_

_Warm blood against skin, but whose blood is it?_

You, as you were, have ceased to exist in this moment.

There, you see? There is no reason to make such an unsightly face. Stop crying. The pain you felt is washing away... and why shouldn't it? It wasn't you who was hurting. The one who suffered all of that pain is gone now. You are not that person.

_"Thank you, Hayato." That undeservedly kind smile seemed to say._

Abandon yourself, so completely and so willingly as I did. Just as I disappeared, so will you. Just as I was changed, I will change you.

I will shape you, craft you, fill you up or carve you out.

You have no say. I did not.

You will not question it, because anything is better than playing alone in the dark. When everyone has forgotten your insignificant existence and you too lament your meaningless existence, you will praise me for bringing you salvation. You will cling to it, desperately, because who are you to deny a reason to exist, sub-human filth? Without me, you are nothing.

Even now, you are still nothing. You are clay, soft and supple in my potter's hands, and I will shape you however I will. You will become whatever I need you to be. I will ease away every uneven edge and support your new shape until it takes hold. I will spin the wheel until I have your mind, just the way I want it to be.

"You tripped and fell down the stairs. You alone hurt yourself."

The once fear-stricken student relaxed, holding his gaze unbroken. "I rescued you and I'm taking you now to the infirmary to recover. That is all."

Naoi ended his hypnosis, the red fading from his eyes as he lead the toy student by the hand, out the closet door and back into the brightly lit school halls, holding him close to support him as he struggles to walk.

Blinking in confusion at the light, the silly student turned to look at Naoi with a grateful smile. "Thank you for helping me!"

Naoi smiled politely back, doing his best to restrain himself from giving away just how deliriously pleased he was with the success of his experiment as he passed a wary-eyed Kanade by.

If Kanade's skills and authority here are what made her an angel, then, when Naoi's chance to overthrow her comes, who could ever think to deny him as god of this world, when he can shape their minds like clay?


End file.
